Rise of the Arkana
by Miss Safire
Summary: AU. The world has ended. When the Narak came they destroyed everything, including humanity. But humanity did not go down without a fight nor did they go without making sure that humans would one day rise again and would take revenge on the Narak, but they also knew that to do this, they would need help. And so they created us, the Arkana. Inspired by the game Scarlet Balde.


Hello guys, Safire here! Now, about this story: The Arkana and everything that has to do with them did not originally come from me, but from the game "Scarlet Blade".

Scarlet Blade is an MMORPG pc game, rated M for mature content and some nudity (as in only 18+, then again, I play it and I'm only 15 at the moment ^^" but… I won't tell if you don't… hehe…). No it is not a porn game; it actually has a plot and a good one at that as you will soon learn from readying this story. That is all for now.

Disclamer: I do not own Naruto or Scarlet Blade, none of the weapons or characters belong to me… only the occasional OC…

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**Rise of the Arkana**

**Prologue**

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The world was coming to its end. The Narak had come in overwhelming numbers and had thrown us all into chaos. When the thought of alien invasion came to mind one would usually overthrow it with the thought that the human race would prevail and would win the battle against aliens.

But that did not happen.

The whole world had come together for this battle, but with the Narak's huge numbers and highly advance technology, it rapidly became clear that the human race would not be coming out victorious. It wasn't long before they turned to nuclear weapons, but while these would destroy the fauna and flora of the earth and would cause many casualties, they did little damage to the Narak's forces. Earth was slowly turned into a wasteland, but no one cared, because we all thought that if humanity was going to go down, then we where taking the Narak down with us. As time seemed to be running out, the leaders from all countries and regions decided to search out and form a group of the best scientists from all over the world so that they would create "The Ark".

I myself am one of these scientists.

**(a/n: everything from here on in this chapter was not written by me, since I thought you guys might understand it better if you read it in its original form)**

"The Ark" is a special cloning project that was left as a last resort. As soon as adult cloning became viable, any government worth a shit began looking into the ultimate fail-safe device. We had good reason to. Even before the Narak, we were in trouble: environmental disasters, diminishing natural resources, holy wars – the world's been on the brink for decades. And with the constant threat of nuclear annihilation, we knew we'd need a way out. A way for humanity to recover from even the worst catastrophe. Even extinction.

The Ark was never meant for war. Like most things, it started with the best of intentions: to save us from ourselves. But when the Narak arrived, we knew that wouldn't be enough. If humanity was to survive, it would need more than just weapons. It would need the champions to wield them.

We call them the Arkana. They are a series of genetically engineered, technologically-augmented super-soldiers. And they are the best chance humanity has of defeating the Narak. The idea is nothing new; we'd seen muscle-bound hulks coming out of black market labs for years now. But we couldn't afford to be so narrow-minded. We'd need strength, agility, and speed, yes - but also adaptability. Synergy. Self-sacrifice. When the Ark's Neo-Humans finally return to the surface, there's no telling what they'll find. The Arkana will have to protect them from anyone, and anything, that threatens their survival.

Early testing showed that female subjects respond better to our process than males. Subtle genetic and neurological differences make them ideal for our planned modifications, as well as more receptive to Genesis Corp implants. To hedge our bets against a greater range of potential threats, we created six distinct archetypes. Each was designed to master a different weapon, and paired with a powerful battle **Mech** to complement their skills.

**The Punisher:** A devastating marksman and master of the heavy rifle. **Her Mech, Ishtar,** combines the precision of a sniper with the firepower of a Narak warship.

**The Sentinel:** An agile, cunning raider wielding dual pistols. **The Kumari Mech** was specifically designed to capitalize on her smaller stature, granting increased maneuverability and devastating hit-and-run potential.

**The Whipper: **The Arkana's crowd-combat specialist, she uses her bladed whip to damage and disable multiple opponents at a time. **The Athena Mech's** energy whip compounds her destructive potential, allowing her to decimate swaths of enemies with a single blow.

**The Medic:** The lynchpin of every Arkana squad, the Medic's modified launcher delivers an array of chemical and biological payloads. This allows her to heal and augment her allies, or unleash poisonous chaos amongst her foes. **Her Mech, Kali,** grants her the speed and power she needs to turn the tide of any battle.

**The Defender:** An expert swordsman, the Defender was designed to withstand an incredible amount of physical punishment. Inside the heavily-armored **Freyja Mech,** she becomes a veritable juggernaut, using her enhanced strength to cleave through foes with reckless abandon.

**The Shadow Walker:** A covert assassin, equipped with deadly hand blades. **Her Epona Mech** utilizes a radically altered design, with four nimble legs to grant both silent movement and lethal bursts of speed.

Like the Neo-Humans they're meant to protect, the Arkana are still clones, created by the Ark… but that's where the similarities end. Each archetype undergoes a unique formative process: as they're grown they are altered, augmented, and molded into living weapons. In addition to their modified genetics, the Arkana are equipped with a variety of synthetic enhancements. Communications uplinks, skeletal plating, and medical injection ports are just the beginning. A complex network of neural implants allows them to command their Mechs at the speed of thought. Subconscious military AI and training programs grant them more battle experience than most veterans - and that's before they ever see the field. By the time an Arkana picks up her first weapon, it feels as natural as breathing.

They are, quite literally, born to kill.

I ordered a small batch of Arkana to be cloned as soon as the Ark was ready. We're not mass-producing them, of course - Outnumbered and unarmed, on a lifeless planet? What would be the point? - but we needed to be certain that the process worked. The results were... unexpected, to say the least. It's hard to explain. We don't even have the tools to measure it, let alone discern its cause. But it appears that the Arkana can... affect... their surroundings in a way we don't fully understand. Their weapons strike with more force than pure physics would indicate. Their reaction times are impossibly fast. Even incoming threats are somehow buffered, dissipating a portion of their energy before actual impact.

We gave one of the Arkana limited access to our historical files. According to her, the best word we have for this unseen energy is "chakra." And by channeling it, the Arkana can do more than we ever dreamed.

Frankly, it's all a little terrifying.

None of us wanted to admit it, but every one of us could see the truth. The Arkana were meant to protect humanity, not replace it. But in our zeal to create mankind's ultimate defender, we had made something just as alien as the Narak themselves. The Arkana's strange new abilities only forced to the surface a fear that had been gnawing at our minds from the beginning: When the time comes, what assurance did we have that the Arkana would be loyal to their creators?

The answer came in the form of a final set of neural implants. Designed to link an Arkana to a human commander, this connection will serve a dual purpose. Every communication, every impulse, that the Arkana receives is also felt by her commander. But a commander is more than a mere observer. Removed from the heat of battle, the Arkana's human counterpart can scan for enemy forces, prioritize targets, and offer vital information in the field. Rather than a burden, the bond between an Arkana and her commander will be a crucial asset in the fight against the Narak: two minds, fighting for a single purpose - stronger together than they ever were apart.

But every commander will also have a harder task. A duty which I pray they will never have to fulfill. According to our predictions, the threat represented by a rogue Arkana would be incredible. If an Arkana can no longer be reasoned with, then her commander must, without hesitation, use the connection to end her life. This, then, is the price the Arkana must pay for their creation. It's a strange kind of symbiosis: without us, they would never have existed. Without them, we'll never survive. With this bond, we will irrevocably link the fate of the Arkana with our own.

With this bond, we will defeat the Narak.

I can feel myself growing weaker every day. But I still have the strength to do what I must. The Ark is finished, but our work is not. Once I've sent these files to the Ark's digital archives, our final task will be to destroy every speck of evidence that we, or this lab, ever existed. Nothing can be left that might lead our enemies back to the Ark's hiding place. After that… I don't know. I doubt I've got long left. Maybe I'll find a quiet hillside somewhere, and watch the cities burn.

Not everyone can say they've seen the world end.

If you're reading this, 100 years have passed since humanity fell. Earth will not be as I remember it. Whatever life remains, if any, will be altered unimaginably. The world will be a strange place, and filled with danger. You will struggle. You will be hunted. And you will have no one to rely on but each other. But you can't give up. I hope these messages help you, somehow. I hope you understand what we did, and why. But most of all, I hope they convince you to fight. You are the final result of an entire species' scientific knowledge. You are our redemption, and our revenge. You are the spark of humanity's rebirth.

I'm not proud of everything we've done, but we've done everything we can.

The rest is up to you.

**(a/n: ok, from here on its me, writing)**

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**…**

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**System: ON**

**Proceeding with project: The Ark**

**Species: Arkana, Medic**

**Code name: Sakura**

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**..**

**…**

I lurched forward with a gasp, my arms flinging wildly in front of me and hitting something solid and smooth, like glass. Before I could even wonder where I was there was a loud sound, like air escaping from a sealed place, then, the glass around me slowly seemed to be lifted off. Standing there in front of me, scantly dressed in a dress that barely covered the necessities, was a tall woman with vibrant red hair that reached up to her shoulders, shocking green eyes and fair skin. She smiled warmly and offered me her hand.

I hesitantly took it and stepped out of what I now guess was an incubator. Looking around me I realized that we where not the only ones in this room… if it could be called that. It was the size of two stadiums at least and all around other girls like me where being helped out of their incubators.

My helper let go of my hand and moved towards a table that was a few feet from us. Upon returning she offered me a piece of leather clothing, I had never seen leather… but something in my head told me that this was it. In fact, I had never seen any of the things that where around me, but I just somehow knew what each thing was and what they did. When I took the piece of clothing from her I knew exactly how to put it on and once done the woman made me turn around to face a body length mirror that was standing next to my incubator.

A small gasp left my lips as I looked at my reflection. My skin and eyes where just like the woman who was now standing behind me with a grin on her face, but my hair was the most amazing shade of light pink that reached just before my shoulders and I was a few inches shorter than her. The clothing I was wearing could only be compared to a bathing suit, it was black with pink lines on the sides and the slit between my breasts was embarrassingly low.

The woman behind me now placed her hands on my shoulders; she leaned over and with a grin still on her face, whispered in my ear.

"Welcome to Earth, Arkana"

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Welp hope you like it so far. If you're interested in the game here's the link:

aeriagames.c o m

Don't forget to review, seriously, reviewing pushes me to write faster, not kidding ^.~

**lots of love**

**-Safire**


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